News Release Number: STScI-2015-26

August 6, 2015: Astronomers have long wondered how the universe's largest elliptical galaxies
continue making stars long after their peak years of star birth. By combining data
from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope with observations from a suite of ground-based and space telescopes, two independent teams have uncovered a unique
process to explain how this star birth continues. The teams found that that the
galaxy's central black hole, jets, and newborn stars are all parts of a self-regulating cycle. In that cycle, jets shooting out of the galaxy's center heat a halo
of surrounding gas, controlling the rate at which it cools and falls into the galaxy.
The astronomers used Hubble's high resolution and ultraviolet vision to resolve
brilliant knots of hot, blue stars forming along the jets from active black holes in
the centers of these giant galaxies.